The Virginia Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will not rehear an appeal of a local judge’s decision upholding the City of Danville’s removal of a Confederate flag from a monument on the grounds of the Sutherlin Mansion.
The Heritage Preservation Association had petitioned for a rehearing before the full court after a three-judge panel of the court ruled in June that it found “no reversible error in the judgment” of Danville Circuit Judge James J. Reynolds.
“I am pleased the Virginia Supreme Court finds no problems with the ordinance adopted by City Council limiting which flags could be flown on public property,” City Attorney Clarke Whitfield said Friday. “I wish to thank attorney Jeremy Carroll for representing the City in this case.”
Carroll is an attorney with the Roanoke firm Glenn, Feldmann, Darby and Goodlatte.
City Council adopted an ordinance on Aug. 6, 2015, that permits only the U.S. national flag, Virginia state flag, city flag of Danville and the POW/MIA flag to be flown on flagpoles owned by the City. Danville Police removed the Third National Flag of the Confederacy from the grounds of the city-owned Sutherlin Mansion following City Council’s adoption of the ordinance.
The ordinance does not prohibit individuals from carrying any flag in public or displaying any flag on private property.
The association and others filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the ordinance. In October 2015, Reynolds granted a motion by the City to dismiss the lawsuit. Reynolds ruled that a state law protecting monuments to war and war veterans does not apply to the monument at the Sutherlin Mansion.
